


summer story

by bestliars



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Minnesota Wild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4802969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestliars/pseuds/bestliars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>love and compromises</p>
            </blockquote>





	summer story

**Author's Note:**

> written ages ago — last summer — for an anon on tumblr who was having a bad day. now cleaned up. unbetaed.

Zach and Ryan don’t always see eye to eye about how to spend the summer. This used to be more of a problem before, when they only got to spend the summers together, and had to go away in different directions in the fall. Now they’re together most of the year, which is great, but does mean that they can start bickering about the best ways to spend the summer, instead of quickly reaching compromises.

See, Ryan likes to spend the summer Not Thinking About Hockey. He showed up at Olympic camp last year not knowing that Bobby had gotten traded to Ottawa. (Zach swears he mentioned this, at least in passing, but Ryan must have not been paying attention. He was probably thinking about plants. Dork.) In the summer Ryan tries to avoid any hockey news, any mention of the game. The summer is for summer things.

He likes to go off to his compound — that’s what Zach calls it. It’s a house and a big yard with garden and a workshop surrounded by a bunch of fields that someone else is in charge of farming. Ryan doesn’t have to be there, but he likes to know what’s going on with his land, and he likes to try his hand at growing something himself — not a real crop, not like the soybeans or alfalfa in the fields, but he likes raising a garden. He has tomatoes, and watermelon, and cucumbers, and there’s a snarl of raspberries out back that he should really cut back, but not until they’ve been picked. He has a recipe for raspberry buttermilk pie he wants to try out.

That’s amazing. Zach wants to eat that pie, it sounds awesome, but he doesn’t want to spend all summer out on the compound. He likes being a bit more in the middle of things. He signed with the Wild to play with Ryan, but also because it meant he can spend the whole year in the Cities. He likes fishing on lake Minnetonka during the week when it’s quiet. He likes getting lunch with his dad, and playing tennis with friends, and hanging around doing nothing with Ryan.

It isn’t really much of a conflict, but they don’t argue about much, so they don’t have much to compare it to. It’s a point of contention. Going back and forth to Wisconsin is a thorn in Zach’s side. Getting Ryan to come back to Minnesota is a constant struggle. It takes a mix of bribery and cajoling and desperation needed to talk him away from the farm. Zach’s getting better at it, but it isn’t easy. He winds up heading to Wisconsin more weekends than not, driving over Thursday afternoon and getting back Monday morning to avoid the bulk of cabin traffic. It’s enough that he doesn’t miss Ryan too badly, and then he can still have his life at home, and get in some the good midweek fishing.

Zach may be more likely to go to Wisconsin than Ryan is to come home, but well...it’s still their home. Ryan isn’t going anywhere else in the fall. He’s just a glorious weirdo who wants to spend his summer playing farmer and painting fences. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t be the man Zach loves. It just gets annoying sometimes, when Zach’s trying to fall asleep alone in their bed, which seems too big when Ryan isn’t in it with him. 

But Ryan does come into the Cities sometimes, if there’s something going on, or if Zach asks just right. It’s tricky, but it happens. Sometimes he’ll wake up and find that Ryan’s decided to drive over from Madison. Ryan’s had the same SUV since the summer they got drafted. Zach wishes he knew how many times it’s made the journey back and forth, four hours on I-94. He wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the triple digits. Ryan’s always coming back to him. 

That means that this morning Zach can go downstairs and wrap his arms around Ryan’s waist. He steals a sip of Ryan’s coffee, then reaches to pull lazy sleepy coffee tasting kisses.

Summer kind of sucks when they’re away from each other, except that it means that they get moments like this. Being back in the same place after time apart was always one of Zach’s favorite things, and wouldn’t trade being together more than apart for the world, but he still loves the joy of being reunite. He likes how good Ryan looks after they haven’t seen each other for a while, loves how good it feels to hold him, to touch and feel that he’s real and solid and warm and right here with Zach. It’s almost enough to make any days they aren’t together worth it.


End file.
